MADISON, Wis. -- Parents on the near East Side of Madison said that they're ready to fight for the future of their schools against expected budget cuts.

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The Madison Metropolitan School District will release its 2007-08 budget on Friday afternoon, which could include several dramatic changes to city schools. One option being considered is to close some neighborhood schools to relieve a $10.5 million budget gap, WISC-TV reported.

The proposed cut would close Sherman Middle School -- sending its students to O'Keefe and Blackhawk middle schools -- and moving alternative high school programs into Sherman's building. Marquette Elementary would also close, and merge its third- through fifth-grade classrooms with Lapham's kindergarten through second grade in the Lapham building, WISC-TV reported.

Parent Victoria Lee said that she picks her daughters up from the bus in front of Sherman, where her girls would go after they finish at Emerson Elementary School. Lee is hoping the cuts don't become reality.

"I wouldn't like it," Lee said. "I mean, we moved into this area thinking that the kids could go to school in the area and I would hate to see them bused to some place where it would take me forever to get to them if something should happen."

Barb Brodhagen, the learning coordinator at Sherman, said that these potential moves would affect thousands of people.

"I understand that the school board has to make really tough decisions, but we'll fight for our school because we don't want our school to be the one that gets closed," said Brodhagen.

District officials said that the proposed changes are an $826,285 cut from the budget, WISC-TV reported.

"The idea is that somehow doing those things saves a significant amount of money in terms of helping with the budget cut, but many of us would beg to differ," said Laura Chastain, co-president of the Lapham/Marquette Parent Teacher Group.

Chastain said that she worked on the East Side Boundary Change Committee, which agreed that this type of move was a bad plan.

"We felt as a group that closing or consolidating schools, especially closing schools in the East attendance area, would not have cost benefit," she said. "In fact, if anything it would be potentially harmful."

District officials wouldn't confirm on Thursday that this proposal is going to be part of their budget presentation on Friday afternoon.

The district said in a statement to WISC-TV, "The fact that they're even considering school consolidation speaks to the serious school finance situation in the state."

Stay tuned to WISC-TV and Channel 3000 for continuing coverage.